


far from us

by shadowcat500



Series: Plaguetober 2020 [20]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Curses, Gen, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Plague Doctors, Plaguetober 2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-20
Updated: 2020-10-20
Packaged: 2021-03-09 00:40:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 519
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27125344
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shadowcat500/pseuds/shadowcat500
Summary: Fern returns to the hollow to find Jasper.
Series: Plaguetober 2020 [20]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1948417
Kudos: 2





	far from us

**Author's Note:**

> 20/10 Rot

The return to the hollow feels like a march to their execution.

Though they know no curse remains there, the spell broken with the death of the leader of the Forgotten One’s cult, the feeling of a metaphorical axe hovering above their neck does not leave. Through breakfast, through the walk there, and through the retracing of their eighty-year-old steps through the cave the axe remains.

The cave is as damp as they remember, and feels so much emptier without Jasper by their side, always with a joke or witty comment for every unsteady moment. Bioluminescent fungus provides a dim glow, and the spores that cling to their robes give a promise of future light, if Fern lets them grow. They will, probably. It isn’t like anything else plans to live there, and the moss that’s trying to make a comeback merely brightens up the fabric. Water threatens to seep through the stitches on their boots with every step, until the cave ceiling rises up into the sky above the hollow.

The trees and cabin are where they where when Fern was last here, branches dripping with rain, stagnant water in ponds scattered throughout the area. The small cabin stands on what Fern has always thought of as stilts, holding it above the muddy ground. The windows are clean: bright curtains drawn back from the windows they’d cleaned just a month or so before they were found and the curse broken. How time flies.

Jasper is where they were when Fern left them, leaning against the tree with their gloved hands pillowed in their lap. Fern almost runs over to them, catching their balance over and over again as their feet sink into spots they’d forgotten were more muddy than the other patches. “Jasper!”

Jasper doesn’t respond. Their head doesn’t even move from its cloudward gaze, and Fern freezes. Is Jasper angry at them for leaving? Fern had told them that it was time to go, but Jasper had said themselves that they just wanted to sit with the clouds a moment longer, and Fern should head on without them. Fern had agreed.

“Jasper?”

Jasper doesn’t move, but their voice emits from the air in a direction Fern can’t pinpoint. “Fern.” Their voice is quiet, but has that small hint of a smile through it that Fern loves so much.

“Jasper!” Fern spins around, trying to figure out where Jasper is. The body on the ground is empty, not _theirs_.

“It’s nice to see you came back. I was missing you.”

“You should have come with me! Then neither of us would be missing the other at all!”

Jasper chuckles, wherever they are. “You know I can’t do that.”

Fern stops and squints. “Why not?”

Jasper chuckles again, but it sounds sadder than they’ve ever heard it before. “I think you know why. Look at me. Properly.”

Fern wonders what could be amiss with the body-that-isn’t-Jasper’s, but does so anyway. Jasper’s coat, Jasper’s mask (the lenses are cracked), Jasper’s gloves, Jasper’s boots… “Why’d you set up your clothes like this?”

Fern hears them sigh. “I think you know why.”

**Author's Note:**

> It may not have come off as clear as I’d have liked, but I was trying to heavily imply that Jasper was dead the whole time, and Fern had been hallucinating their voice to deal with the isolation. Fern couldn’t really see the decay due to the plague doctor suit, and mentally just wrote off the fact that Jasper was behaving like, well, a corpse.
> 
> Check out my [ tumblr](https://existentialcrisisetcetera.tumblr.com/tagged/zach%20writes)!
> 
> Comments and kudos appreciated!


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